Winnipeg Transit and area

[matt548]

40 minutes ago, wpgtransit183-2 said:

buddy of mine emails me them every change gives me hard copies of the run cards to he's a transit driver on 16-1 this summer

could you post some of the runs that do the 64? (pm rush) it's cool if you say no 

Thank you

[wpgtransit183-2]

18 hours ago, matt548 said:

could you post some of the runs that do the 64? (pm rush) it's cool if you say no 

Thank you

got an email I can send u the whole wack of them lol

 

[matt548]

On 5/10/2017 at 6:13 PM, vivablue5215 said:

Photo of construction progress at U of M.

May I ask, what is being constructed there and when will it reopen?

[DavidW]

1 hour ago, matt548 said:

May I ask, what is being constructed there and when will it reopen?

The transit terminal at the University of Manitoba is being reconfigured. In the new design there will be a common alighting stop eastbound in front of Tache Hall, a bus layover area near the corner of Freedman Crescent and Saunderson Street, and four boarding stops westbound on Dafoe Road between Service Street 7 South and the quadrangle.

Construction is supposed to be completed in October 2017.

P.S. Has anyone checked out the site lately?  I heard a rumour (which I genuinely hope is not true) that the four boarding stops would not be equipped with shelters.  I hope by now concrete pads have been poured for shelters. The pads should have conduits for power too.

[matt548]

1 minute ago, DavidW said:

The transit terminal at the University of Manitoba is being reconfigured. In the new design there will be a common alighting stop eastbound in front of Tache Hall, a bus layover area near the corner of Freedman Crescent and Saunderson Street, and four boarding stops westbound on Dafoe Road between Service Street 7 South and the quadrangle.

Construction is supposed to be completed in October 2017.

P.S. Has anyone checked out the site lately?  I heard a rumour (which I genuinely hope is not true) that the four boarding stops would not be equipped with shelters.  I hope by now concrete pads have been poured for shelters. The pads should have conduits for power too.

Wow! thanks for the info  

[vivablue5215]

1 hour ago, DavidW said:

P.S. Has anyone checked out the site lately?  I heard a rumour (which I genuinely hope is not true) that the four boarding stops would not be equipped with shelters.  I hope by now concrete pads have been poured for shelters. The pads should have conduits for power too.

I was there yesterday and definitely saw concrete pads poured. The layover area is also making good progress, but sadly I didn't see any infrastructure that would resemble shelters being installed in the future.

I'll try and grab some photos later this week.

[DavidW]

24 minutes ago, vivablue5215 said:

I was there yesterday and definitely saw concrete pads poured. The layover area is also making good progress, but sadly I didn't see any infrastructure that would resemble shelters being installed in the future.

I'll try and grab some photos later this week.

My understanding is that the layover area will normally not allow passengers. So the only structure that would be useful there is a operator comfort facility (toilets, lounge, wide screen TVs, espresso machine).

(A couple of battery-bus rechargers would be nice too.)

[horseman]

9 hours ago, DavidW said:

The transit terminal at the University of Manitoba is being reconfigured. In the new design there will be a common alighting stop eastbound in front of Tache Hall, a bus layover area near the corner of Freedman Crescent and Saunderson Street, and four boarding stops westbound on Dafoe Road between Service Street 7 South and the quadrangle.

Construction is supposed to be completed in October 2017.

P.S. Has anyone checked out the site lately?  I heard a rumour (which I genuinely hope is not true) that the four boarding stops would not be equipped with shelters.  I hope by now concrete pads have been poured for shelters. The pads should have conduits for power too.

I heard that the U of M station is going to just have a row of shelters rather than the station-style shelters at the other stations along the corridor.

[DavidW]

Winnipeg Transit orders 70 XD40 buses for delivery in 2018.

press release

[doug_oak]

1 hour ago, DavidW said:

Winnipeg Transit orders 70 XD40 buses for delivery in 2018.

Good to see that WT is continuing to deal with its large replacement requirement in the near future - now have ordered a total of 100 buses (30 buses in 170-199 being delivered) plus this latest order.   Facing the near-term replacement of 138 buses: 35 D30LF (911-925, 930-949) and 103 D40LF (401-499, 501-504).

[LilZebra]

401-443 1998 NFI D40LF = 43

444-499 1999 NFI D40LF = 56

501-504 1999 NFI D40LF = 4

That's ~100 40 ft. low floor "Made in Manitoba" diesel buses being replaced with 40 ft. low floor diesel buses.

That's madening. How "progressive".

[matt548]

when are 401-504 going to be retired? (my estimate will be around 2018-2020)

[LilZebra]

Right now, WT buses that usually travel along Graham Ave. are being (temporarily) re-routed onto St. Mary Ave.  This is due to JD Penner having to replace paving stones with regular concrete.

Having lived in the Broadway-Assiniboine for over 20 yrs. I always wondered WHY there was never any service on York Ave.?

I do recall that the part of the original routing of the DASH bus ca. 1976 (months after CKND-TV ch. 9 launched) travelled on York because of the WCC.

Makes sense to have a bus go there now, especially because of less parking now at WCC, and also the future opening of TNS. East India Co. is there. Best Western "Plus" is there. 155 and 175 Carlton St. office buildings are there.

So when we getting a York bus? And what route # would it have? Could one of WT's routes be permanently re-routed onto St. Mary and York Aves.?

I understand the "blocks" to accomplishing this, and I'm sure DavidW, taking the "contrarian view", will chime in on it...that St. Mary Ave. and York Ave. are one-way streets...So this cannot be done.

But realize, this is a "hole" in WT's service downtown service grid.

[DavidW]

2 hours ago, LilZebra said:

But realize, this is a "hole" in WT's service downtown service grid.

But is it really a "hole"?  Is it reasonable to expect a bus on every block or is it reasonable for people on some blocks to walk one block to access bus service?

Given finite resources would it be more useful to have four buses per hour on Broadway, or two buses per hour on Broadway and two buses per hour on York/St. Mary?  This is an example of the key point in Jarrett Walker's recent presentation in Winnipeg -- What is your preferred balance of Coverage versus Frequency.

All the modern analysis of transit service usefulness indicates that Frequency is far more attractive and usable to ridership than Coverage.

Winnipeg Transit currently fails to deliver even one single travel corridor meeting the most minimal definition of frequent service (maximum 15 minute headway in both directions all day weekdays between 7am and 6pm). Spreading bad service even thinner (and therefore making service worse) to shorten a handful of riders' walk by one measly block seems to me to be wildly counterproductive.

[vivablue5215]

I didn't manage to have a chance to check out the progress at the U of M station by the Quad, however they've started ripping up the sidewalk on the east side of University between Dafoe and Chancellor Matheson.

While buses were still stopping the few days after the Chancellor Matheson shelters were taken out, the entire stop, or what was the stop, has now been taped off and is now inaccessible.

As of next week, if you're outbound from U of M heading to downtown, there's now only two stops: The temporary terminal on Maclean, and the stop at University/Dysart.

[DavidW]

I was on campus Friday too but didn't get a chance to check out the status of the construction. I did have to catch my 60 Pembina home from Univ. Cresc. northbound between Freedman and Dafoe. Why are they not using the temporary terminal on MacLean Cresc. northbound that they used all summer?

[BusRider]

12 hours ago, DavidW said:

I was on campus Friday too but didn't get a chance to check out the status of the construction. I did have to catch my 60 Pembina home from Univ. Cresc. northbound between Freedman and Dafoe. Why are they not using the temporary terminal on MacLean Cresc. northbound that they used all summer?

Temporary terminal is on University Cres. during Canada Games and the U of M move in week.

[DavidW]

Polo Park Terminal is completely removed for reconstruction.

[matt548]

2 hours ago, DavidW said:

Polo Park Terminal is completely removed for reconstruction.

are they rebuilding every major transit terminal in Winnipeg this year?

same as for the u of m, when will this reopen?

Lastly, how come I found find any news about the terminal reconstruction in the u of m? (all I could find was about Stadium Station)

[horseman]

9 hours ago, matt548 said:

are they rebuilding every major transit terminal in Winnipeg this year?

same as for the u of m, when will this reopen?

Lastly, how come I found find any news about the terminal reconstruction in the u of m? (all I could find was about Stadium Station)

No they're not rebuilding all the terminals, the Polo Park work was initiated by the owners of the mall.  The work on Graham was due to the ongoing problems with the paving bricks - it was decided this had to happen.

There have been some issues with presenting information on the southwest corridor but I've heard this is being looked into... so that more information can be presented.

...

There's an article currently on the Free Press website talking about the ongoing issue of fare evasion in Winnipeg, linking it to bus drivers being put at risk if they argue with individuals over paying the fare.  The gist of the article is that it's unfair for this to be permitted if most people still pay the fare.

Any thought for how WT should address this going forward?  Should we go to proof-of-payment?  The article suggests fares should be eliminated for everyone but that's not a good idea.

[DavidW]

4 hours ago, horseman said:

There's an article currently on the Free Press website talking about the ongoing issue of fare evasion in Winnipeg, linking it to bus drivers being put at risk if they argue with individuals over paying the fare.  The gist of the article is that it's unfair for this to be permitted if most people still pay the fare.

Any thought for how WT should address this going forward?  Should we go to proof-of-payment?  The article suggests fares should be eliminated for everyone but that's not a good idea.

The rate and severity of confrontations between operators and passengers seems to be rising.  Fare evasion is the most common reason why operators might initiate a confrontation and taking that task out of the job description might help.  It's my experience that in Vancouver bus drivers don't challenge people over their fares, and a small but noticeable percentage of passengers don't pay. They just walk past the driver and sit down.

I personally oppose the idea of a fare-free transit system. It's often referred to as the "rolling homeless shelter model" and I think that captures the gist of it, at least for a community as large and economically diverse as Winnipeg.  My goal is a transit system more attractive to general riders, not less.

I've seen "proof of payment" work on rail systems, where roving fare inspectors have a little more time between stops to review all or many of the fares on board. It also helps that rail cars generally have doors at each end and don't require an inspector to double back through a crowded vehicle.  There's usually a bit more space in a rail car to take an evader aside and process the penalty document. Are there successful examples on local all-stop buses?  How many roving inspectors would be needed for a system of 600 buses?  I would guess they would routinely work in pairs for safety...

Are their any other options besides proof-of-payment?  I can't really imagine turnstiles on buses...  I suppose off-board fare collection is a possibility at rapid transit stations.

It's ironic that the transit system eliminated the job separation between vehicle operation and fare collection in the 1920s by cutting two-man crews (motorman and conductor) to one-man crews. Here we are almost a hundred years later struggling with how that has now played out...

[Blue Bus Fan]

Winnipeg Transit has taken options to purchase 70 more buses from New Flyer:

https://newflyer.com/rss/860-winnipeg-exercises-contract-extension-to-order-70-additional-transit-buses

[vivablue5215]

Saw a tow truck carrying the shell of 551 at Main and Broadway around 12:30 today.

[wt_enthusiast_photos]

3 hours ago, vivablue5215 said:

Saw a tow truck carrying the shell of 551 at Main and Broadway around 12:30 today.

Is that one retired? 

[XD40WPG]

This may be off topic, but does anyone know how I can go about getting some detailed pictures of some of the D40LF buses in the fleet? I'm making a scale model of one and hoping to either get blueprints or to takes photos of them myself. I read waaaay back in this topic that you can ask at the Fort Rouge garage if you can take take a few pictures of the buses. Is this true?